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This time I'm going to do a short review on Ajal's first debut demo 'Ajal Tiba Bila Seruan Menjelma' or ' Death Comes When the Call Appears' (am I the only one who find the title weird in English?). Released sometime around this year, only 66 copy were released and consist of 3 original songs and 1 cover song from SYJ namely:

Playing Black Metal with touches of Thrash and hints of Eastern Metal, Ajal quoted local bands such as As Sahar,Nebiras, Mistik and Rator and international bands with the likes of Darkthrone, Bathory and Marduk as their influences. After listened to their demo, I could say I agreed Ajal is indeed playing Eastern Black/Thrash Metal, the Eastern Metal essences really showed up musically, so does with Thrash but lyrically, well that's another story. Instead of being a straight worshipper/rip off of early Eastern Black Metal pioneers like countless other Malaysian Eastern Black Metal bands did (no need to mention names heheh), Ajal did not stray into superstitious belief, ghosts or any ancient folklores. Instead Ajal speaks about death,sin, darkside of life and many more. Now that's something different, I guess.

Enough crapping about the band, onward to the songs themselves.

Hukuman ke Tali Gantung - This song started with a sample taken from a television news about death sentence (hanging) before the music kicked off. I was kinda annoyed with the lead guitar, It seems to be out of place and played half-hearted. The drummer executed a standard thrashy beat. The vocals, mannnnnn, the vocals! I would say the vocalist sounded very beastly not only in this song, but also throughout the whole demo! By the way, bass guitar didn't really made it presence felt in this song, and sadly, in other songs as well.

Susuk Kheramat - This song ,just like the first one, started with an ambient sound. Guitar works in this song is better than the first one. Though I mentioned the vocalist sounded evil and beastly before, I began to realised his singing is barely intelligible. To be honest I can't even guess wheteher he is singing in Bahasa or English! Once again, the lead guitar killed the mood with his uninspired lead works. The drummer gave a decent beat, just nice, not sloppy and not too technical either.

Ajal Tiba Bila Seruan Menjelma - Again, a sample is played at the beginning of the song. Wow, just when I thought only grindcore bands like to include samples in their song. Creative but Ajal overused it, thus made me felt all the songs posses the same flow. Again, the lead guitar really destroyed the mood. Come on, come up with comething real catchy,man!At this point, I felt if in the future Ajal decides to re-release the demo, please, either exclude the guitar solo or re-record it. It's awful and I guess it is the biggest drawback of the demo,as well as the absence of bass (I know black metal bands usually have a very low bass mix,but hey it's just an opinion).

I skipped the cover song totally.

Pros:-Good ideas were thrown into the songs.-They play Eastern Black Metal, with the touch of Thrash which something new

Cons:-Though the ideas are good, the songs are badly executed (Bad production is excused, it's black metal,who needs a clean production?!)-Overuse of samples,and all samples are played at the beginning of the songs,thus ruining the listening experience-Bass guitars are rarely heard-Weak and uninspired guitar solos, might as well just exclude them.

I pick Susuk Kheramat as the most outstanding track of the demo. Being the first demo from them, Ajal still have lots to improve. Fans of Black Metal with raw edge will definitely dig this.